During the Parliament’s monsoon session, AAP Rajya Sabha MP, Raghav Chadha, took a jibe at the BJP government, and discussing the Delhi Services Bill, asked the Centre to follow their own leaders like KL Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who wanted complete statehood for the national capital, Delhi. ‘It is a bill to enslave 2 crore people of Delhi.’, alleged Chadha.
He further said that the BJP is reacting to the fact that they have lost multiple consecutive elections in Delhi, and as an effect, they are violating federalism and are changing the Constitution without having to cross the obstacle of passing a Constitutional amendment bill. The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was passed in the Lok Sabha earlier. Today, it was presented in the Upper House for debate and vote.
The AAP, which rules Delhi, and will naturally be the most affected from the bill, has been speaking against the bill for long now, and has argued that the proposed law will set a precedent that can be used to strip any opposition-ruled state of its power of governance, sidelining the elected government. Chadha also expressed, ‘The bill demolishes the triple chain of accountability. It means the officers will not listen to the CM or Deputy CM. They will go to the lieutenant governor.’
‘In 25 years, BJP lost six state elections, even in 2015 and 2020. They know they can’t any win elections in 25 next years. This is BJP backlash to AAP’s sweeping victory in two consecutive elections.’, he stated.
The AAP MP expressed, ‘The BJP has agitated for nearly 40 years from 1977 to 2015 to get full statehood status for Delhi. Vajpayee and deputy PM Advani brought a bill to give Delhi the status of state. The BJP National Executive decided to give statehood to Delhi. The BJP has been promising people that they would make Delhi a state. It was part of the party manifesto since 1989.’
Replying to Amit Shah’s statement of Nehru not opining that Delhi should get full statehood, Chadha said, ‘I want to tell Amit Shah Ji, don’t be Nehru-vadi, be Advani-vadi.’ Accusing the BJP of insulting the Supreme Court, he also stated, ‘What crisis came that you had to go against a Supreme Court order? This is an insult of the country’s top court. The BJP given a message that it doesn’t care what the Supreme Court says, they have challenged the Supreme Court.’
